PPI network analysis of diabetic retinopathy genes

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading causes of blindness in many countries. Proteomic studies of DR have discovered a set of genes involved in the disease. In this study, protein protein interaction network (PPIN) of DR proteins were analysed to identify the hub nodes and a PPI network related to retinopathy genes was generated using Cytoscape software. The constructed protein network was analysed using ClusterONE, ClueGO and cytohubba. Among 497 identified candidate proteins, 482 were seen in the main connected component. The topology and functionality of the associated proteins were studied based on centrality parameters such as degree, betweenness and closeness. From the result, two significant clusters were identified which included the experimentally proven five seed proteins. These findings helped in identifying important hub proteins and their direct interacting partners that could be considered as therapeutic biomarkers for treating disease.